My Resentments Toward Religion

I try to be open about other people's beliefs but I seem to have a lot of difficulty taking religious views seriously, with Christianity in particular because it is so prevalent here. To be honest just the mention of the Bible of of Jesus and I get disgusted with it. My family never really brought me to church and the spirituality that I tend to believe in isn't really based on any particular religion. Everything here is really just my opinion from what I see in religion, even though I am really not an expert in their teachings.

What exactly is it that bothers me about religion? I see it as a prepackaged set of beliefs that prevents people from thinking for themselves and causes many of them to live in constant fear of burning in hell for all eternity. Churches say that God is loving and all-powerful, yet we are to be punished if we do not live up to his standards. Doesn't this strike anybody as petty, that God needs us to worship him and do everything he asks, despite him having given us free will? There is no free will when you can make your own decisions as long as they are what God wants you to do. Otherwise, see you in hell. How can this sort of belief bring anybody happiness? It seems more like we created God in our own likeness, instead of the other way around. Are we really so arrogant to think that our own actions are so important that the one who supposedly created us all needs us to act in a certain way?

Something else that really bothers me is that religion sticks its head into social and health issues, under the justification that God wants things a certain way. One example that comes to mind are sextuplets that were born recently and they needed blood transfusions. The parents were Jehovah's Witnesses and refuses the treatment because it went against their beliefs, so the doctors went ahead and did it anyways. The parents then wanted to take the doctors to court. How can any body even begin to justify denying medical treatment because God says it is wrong, how does this even because a debatable issue? Why does God want innocent babies to die when they could easily be provided with the medical treatment required? When it comes to abortion, however, life suddenly becomes sacred once against and mothers who abort their pregnancies are looked at as murderers. I don't see how forcing mothers who will be unable to properly raise a child is in the baby's best interest. How about young girls who are raped and then told that they are murderers because they choose not to have to give birth to a child of the man that raped them? Do they not have any rights as well? And lets not forget about the evils of contraception...sex is a dirty dirty thing and we should be ashamed of our bodies.

Fear seems to be a great motivator for religions, as it keeps people dependent on them. The churches claim to be the only way to find God, otherwise we will never find salvation. God forbid we are encouraged to create our own spiritual beliefs and find our own path in life. We are weak on our own and will cave in to the temptations that the devil has put in our paths. This is such a simplistic childish fairytake that keeps people living in fear and I get angry just thinking that people actually accepting this stuff. I get so judgmental even though I know that it is the judgment of religion that bothers me, but I often can't help myself. The idea of Satan and God battling for my soul is just such a ridiculous idea in my mind, but I can't even begin to imagine what kind of tormented life people must live when they are worried about this from day to day.

I know that my views of religion often come from resentment, and that this does not make the situation any better. I am also aware that many people have religious views and find my beliefs just as absurd as I find theirs. I don't like what I see religion doing to people I know and I don't like what I see it creating across the globe. There is so much war and killing in the name of God that religion seems to offer much more harm than good.

I hope that I learn to accept religion, and by doing so work on my own growth. Maybe that is what its purpose for me will be, because I don't think staying angry about it will benefit me or others. All I can do is focus on myself and try to respect what other people believe in. Easier said than done...